April 24th. St. Mellitus.

The first Bishop of London, and the third Archbishop of Canterbury. He was a native of Rome, sent to England by St. Gregory the Great in 601, four years after the arrival of St. Augustine. Mellitus was instructed by Gregory to tell Augustine not to destroy the temples of the English pagans, but only the idols; the temples were to be converted into churches. In 604, Mellitus was consecrated by Augustine as Bishop of the East Saxons, based in London, where the first churches dedicated to St. Paul had already been built. His stay in London was to be of short duration, however; the Christian king of the East Saxons died, and his pagan sons evicted Mellitus who, with others, was obliged to depart for France. In 619 he succeeded Laurence as Archbishop of Canterbury, but was not able to return to London itself. He was buried, on his death in 624, near St. Augustine in the abbey church of SS. Peter and Paul in Canterbury.